Mik: The Second Experiment
by Marshpelt
Summary: Mik is an experiment in the school, who longs to escape, and reunite with the world outside. When she meets the flock, she instantly becomes a target for Schools around the world.But there's something odd about her...
1. Prologue

**Hey guys. Yes, I read Maximum ride. It is awesome. Fang Rocks. I invented Fangism by the way. The belief that Fang Is awesome and deserves to exist.**

**Anyway, here's the prologue.**

I'm a freak. Not like mental, though I'm very lucky to be sane. I went very close to going insane several times. I'm not like those kids that you see in TV. The ones that are twins, but they got stuck together and they share an arm or something. I'm lucky to not be like that either.

What happened to me makes those kids look like they're the luckiest kids in the world. Most of them are: they don't know about this. What happened to them came naturally.

Reading this is dangerous. For you. For me. Heck, it's dangerous for the whole world. But you've started, so don't stop now. You're part of this whole thing now.

DO NOT stop reading. You need to know about EVERYTHING.

What I'm going to tell you now will probably come as a surprise, so brace yourself. You've just become part of the Experiment: Phase Two.

**I know, I know. Really short, predictable. But it gets better, trust me. Much better.**

**Fly on,**

**~Mik~**


	2. Chapter 1: Caged

Ok, ppl. Sorry it took me so long. I'm incredibly busy right now. Well, The first chapter is finally done, so now you get to laugh at my writing more. Yay! No, seriously, tell me what you think. So without any futher ado, Chapter one! Caged

I stared at the bars of my cage in utter disgust and smashed my fist into the thick, metal door with a quiet _thunk_.

Yeah, I said, "cage". I know what you're thinking, but it wasn't a prison. Not the normal type. Oh, I wish it were a prison. If I were in Juvie I could _stand up_ or even _talk to someone_. If I were in prison I'd be dancing for joy.

I wasn't in prison; you probably noticed. It didn't have enough room to dance, or stand. Heck, I barely had room to sit upright. If you've heard from Max, you know what I'm talking about. Yeah, the School.

_This sucks,_ I thought for the millionth time that day. I punched the bars harder. _Thunk. _Harder. _Thunk!_ Blood was beginning to run down my hands, but I didn't care. _Thunk!_ I rammed my fist hard into the cold, feeling the skin on my knuckles tear. I hurt all over anyway, from the experiments. _Thwak! _My hand drew back and I snapped it forwards with all of the force and rage and resentment in my fragile body. _Crunch!_

"YAUGH!!!!" I screamed, clutching my hand. At least two of my fingers were broken. I could feel it in the stabs of pain that sent shocks up my arm. I could feel the eyes of some of the other experiments on me. The ones that had eyes anyway. Or brains. Or knew how to use them, for that matter.

I heard footsteps in the hall, coming closer. I bit my lip and tasted blood, unable to keep from whimpering one last time in angry pain. Tears leaked into my eyes and I shoved them back. I'd only ever cried a couple times in my life after the change. I'd sworn I never would again.

_Stupid whitecoats. Stupid experiments. Stupid School! Augh!!!_

I shifted back from the door as the whitecoats shuffled closer, on guard for any attack. They'd learned the hard way that they had to be careful with me. I almost smiled at the memory, but I hadn't done that in years either. The muscles didn't seem to be working right.

At least I thought it had been years. The days were sort of blended together, a hazy mass of pain and fear. I could barely remember the face of my mother. I think I was four when the whitecoats took me and started experimenting on me. I'd been in that stupid School four ten or eleven _years_. And you know what? _They'd replaced some of my human DNA with something else._

Red hazed over my vision as the whitecoats unlocked my door. I was sick of everything, I was sick of it! The only thought I had as they reached in to pull me out was, _IwantoutIwantoutIwantOUT!_

Through the red haze, I felt myself moving forwards, out of the cage. I felt oddly detached from everything. I felt sort of like an out-of-body experience.

I drew back my fist and punched. Hard.

I hit one in the stomach and then spun, landing a hard kick on another's side. A quick uppercut to a third whitcoat's face and she crumpled.

I checked the situation. There had been five to begin with: three whitecoats and two unmorphed erasers. I'd downed two whitecoats, but the eraser I'd kicked was getting up, morphing. The remaining whitecoat took out one of those electric-rod thingies that they used to zap me during tests.

I flinched and bit back a yelp as pain lashed through my side. The second eraser had grazed me. I was cornered, backed up against my cage, with enemies advancing from all sides.

_I'm never going to back down. Never ever again._

I jumped on top of my cage backwards, still facing them. One of the erasers lunged.

As quick as a flash, I stepped on his hand and vaulted over him, kicking hard backwards. I heard something crunch and nodded slightly to myself before taking off down the hallway.

I glanced back once and saw the remaining whitecoat running through another door. Then a voice came through some speakers in the walls, "Subject A42MiK9 has escaped from its cage. Kill it."

_Cool, _I thought, anger turning my blood into fire, _No more second chances._

I burst through another door, then another and stopped, backpedaling furiously. The room was full of erasers. They all looked up, and every one of them began to grin and morph. Screaming like a maniac, I shot back out of the door and down the hallway, with at least a dozen erasers on my tail.

I swerved left, then right, through so many doors that I lost track of where I was. Then burst trough another…straight into a maze. I froze only a fraction of a second before plunging in.

_Maybe I can trap some of them. _Please_, God, don't let me die here!_

The walls were still shifting, but I simply ran, zigzagging backtracking, looping, until my lungs burned and I couldn't feel my legs. Then the walls simply melted away, shifting until I couldn't see them. There was a wall running around the room, no exit, no entrance. I was doomed.

I saw the erasers turning, looking…and spotting their prey. Yeah, that'd be _moi_.

And then they were charging.

I ran away from them as fast as I could, but there was nowhere to run. My eyes darted around, looking for a way out. No doors.

The erasers were taking easy strides now, leisurely. They could have fun now that they had me trapped. I backed into a wall. So much for the running-around-until-they're-too-tired-to-follow idea. Now the only option I had was the fight-at-least-a-dozen-erasers-all-at-once idea. And whether you believe it or not, I wasn't to keen on that.

I swung about in a hard roundhouse kick into one's stomach. He doubled over as I planted my elbow in another's face, feeling his nose break. I swayed sideways to dodge a punch that cracked the wall and brought my foot down from the roundhouse, breaking his arm. One grabbed my hand and twisted. I heard a snap and winced, gritting my teeth until they squeaked.

Time ticked by, thirty seconds, a minute as I landed blow after blow, but they were scoring hits on me too. I was bleeding and in pain. It felt like half my bones were broken. I saw a fist coming, but I was too tired to dodge. It landed on my face hard and I went down, tasting blood. Through a haze of darkness, I saw erasers advancing, nursing their wounds and snarling. Five were unconscious. One had both of his legs broken. Other than that, they could all walk. And I was on the ground, almost blacked out. Bad news. Seriously.

I felt the blackness rushing towards me. _Is this the end? _I wondered.

**Wow, only chapter one, and a cliffhanger already! I was going to end it differently, but it got too long… So, does she live, does she die? Review to find out!**


	3. Chapter 2: Escape

**Yeha, yeah. I'm not dead yet. Came a little close but so far those of you who want to take over my fanfictions will just have to wait. –- anyway, really short chapter, but my next one will be longer.**

**Chapter Two**

As I waited for death, I turned my head, trying to keep each eraser in sight. Maybe if I could get my breath back…

I turned my head a little, wincing, trying to sit up. The sun blinded me for a minute and I struggled to shield my eyes. Then I froze. Oh my gosh. The sun. I could see the sun. Windows. There were windows at the top of the ceiling. I'd never looked up during the fight.

There where whitecoats and erasers and guns and electric-rod thingies everywhere but I was going to die anyway, right? Might as well die trying to get free.

I sat up, adrenaline pounding through me so hard it made me dizzy. I could stand, I thought. A quick glance at myself revealed an assortment of bruises and scrapes. I had gashes on my side, arms and legs, I could feel a cut stinging above my eye, and I was pretty sure my wrist and a couple ribs were broken. Other than that, I was fine. OK, not fine. Pretty much everything about my situation sucked, but I felt hope lift my spirits a little.

I jumped up fast, _Ow, _and ran towards the erasers. They all paused; one backtracked, fearing another attack. Then I snapped open my wings and leapt.

Yeah, wings.

Cool, huh?

Pain burned through every nerve of my body as my anklet sent shockwaves coursing through me, but I pushed down, up, down and rose, despite the constant, burning pain. A furry, clawed hand grabbed me by the anklet and the pain cut off. I almost wanted to thank the stupid fuzball for trying to drag me back to Earth. Apparently, this bunch didn't have wings.

Several pinpoints of red light appeared on my tattered hospital gown. They were going to shoot me. Even if I made it to the windows before someone pulled the trigger, I knew I couldn't build up any momentum to smash them. Not with my frail body and a two-hundred-plus pound eraser hanging off my foot.

I did a barrel roll to the left and the red dots left me for an instant. At the same time I felt myself dip back towards Earth a little. _No, no, no! Help me God!_ I pushed hard with my dark wings, sinking a little and rising again, taking sharp turns to keep the sun in the eyes of the armed men below. A gunshot rang out and I felt a blazing trail of pain carve through my cheek, right under my eye. _Gah! Do they coat their bullets with acid now, too?_

The eraser below me lashed out and I flinched as his claws cut through my skin. I kicked at him with my free foot, eyes widening when I actually connected with his skull. He slipped, then grabbed again.

I heard rather than felt my ankle snap. I winced and looked down a little, straining with my wings to gain altitude. He met my eyes and I saw his anger and pain and hatred. There was a flicker of something else… fear? Grief? I couldn't tell. Then he was falling away from me while I rocketed upwards with all of the energy and power that he'd been holding back. I smashed through the widow as gunshots shattered the split-second stillness.

The glass shattered as I burst through it, but I barely noticed the shards tearing my skin. I took a deep breath of fresh air and began to fly as hard as I could, away from the nightmarish school. It was several seconds before my tired mind remembered my final duty. _Thank you, God,_ I prayed, _Thanks a lot._

**Sorry for the shortness and the lateness, but please review anyway. I'll try to get the next story soon.**


	4. Chapter 3: Past

Okay guys, I'm back! What, only 4 reviews? You guys are making me sad… -cries-

**Okay! Here's the next way-too-short, boring chapter! Come on guys, I'm not going to update until someone starts reviewing! Okay…that won't work. I just love to write too much. Anyway! You didn't come here to listen to me babble so onto the chapter!**

**Maximum Ride: I. Don't. Own. It.**

Chapter Three

For a while I just had to remember to flap and breathe. My wings – dark, dark gray with black tips – were built for power, not distance. Along with my major blood-loss, nasty injuries, and previous exhaustion that meant that after a few minutes I was gasping for air and struggling to keep airborne. When my brain started working again, the first thing I realized was the lack of electric shocks from my anklet. I looked down and for the first time in years, I smiled.

My foot was hanging loose at a slightly alarming angle, but that didn't matter. The anklet was gone. I studied my memory (More on that later) and sighed in relief. As the eraser had fallen, there had been something clutched in his hand: something small and round. I could see his half-morphed fur standing straight up with jolts of electricity.

I flapped again, a little less powerfully, taking in the scenery. There was a lake below me. **(AN: Badwater Basin, remember? Remember?) **I tucked in my wings and dove steeply towards the water. I dipped so close that I could glide and skim my hands and feet over the surface. It felt so good that I gasped a little. Hey, you might think that's stupid but _you_ try living in a cage with no real water for years on end. _Then_ you can tell me I'm a baby. All of the blood and dirt and grime that had dripped from my hands and feet washed off, leaving a ribbon of red in the water that was actually kind of pretty, in a gory sort of way. I flapped once, brushing the water with my wingtips, and shot upwards. I only a few minutes the lake was disappearing behind me.

As I flew, I reflected on my life.

I'd been four when I'd been taken. I'd had a nice family, my mom, my dad, my baby brother, and me. When I'd been walking outside a van - black (of course) with tinted windows - drove up. A man had waved to me, smiling and said something I couldn't hear. I walked closer (hey, I was _four_ ok?), and said something smart like "What?" He'd grabbed me, dragging me straight through the window, and the van just drove off.

We got to the school a few nights later and I'd been stuck in a cage – a _dog crate_ of all things! – and they just left me there. Days passed and sometimes I got fed. Sometimes I had to run on a treadmill or in a maze. They stuck me in an oven-thing once to see how much heat I could take and a couple times they put me in a tank of water to see how long I could hold my breath or go without drowning. Needles and brainless, scaly things were my only companions. I began to forget how to talk.

When I was five they put me to sleep for weeks – at least I think it was weeks -and when I woke up I had wings. Well, I freaked out over that and went berserk, but they just stuck me back in the cage. I learned how to move my wings and found, to my genuine delight, that I could fly. That was the pinprick of light in my dark cage. I mean God. Wings.

Then of course it got worse. It always does.

Then they did all of their tests on me again. They made me fight erasers. They checked how durable I was and how long I could fly. How breakable my bones were, what kind of weight I could lift, and how protected my vital organs were. They stuck me in wind tunnels and left me there until I would get so tired I'd smack into the wall behind me like a bug on a windshield.

Every time that I messed up, every time I was to tired to finish something, too slow, too weak, too much of a failure, they'd zap me. The walls were rigged, the floors, the ceilings, the doors. You couldn't go anywhere or do anything without the risk. Sometimes they'd shoot electricity through my cage just to see how I'd cope. Almost every day I had been forced to work until I couldn't see or think. Then they would just chuck me back in my cage and leave.

When I first got there I was a total wimp. After a couple minutes of anything, I'd give up. I cried some times. I bled easily, with my soft skin. I couldn't fight. I had low tolerance for heat, cold, electricity, pain, anything really. They'd punish me and make me keep going. I learned not to talk to them. I learned to keep going. I learned to be fast, strong, and deadly.

Sometimes I saw experiments that had escaped. There was a fish kid in a tank next to my cage that had told me everything he knew before he was killed by erasers. He had spent three years in a wheelchair outside after he'd developed lungs that could breathe air. There was a bat-girl who called herself Dharc, who told me about the outside world before she tried to run away. I'd tried to go with her. I had been slammed into a wall, then, as I was blacking out, I'd heard a gunshot, snarls, and a scream. I never saw her again. That had been my second try at escape.

There had been endless mistakes that came and went in and out of the cages around me. Most of them died within a couple weeks, two months at the most, and every time I wondered, feared, even hoped that I would be the next to die. The longest I'd ever seen an experiment besides myself stay alive was a plant-kid that they potted outside my cage for almost 2½ years before they stopped watering him and he withered up.

I'd tried to escape twice. I'd been punished and subjected to worse tests, then put back in the cage with only some weird medicine for a couple of days. When I got too hungry, I took the medicine, and found out the hard way that it was designed to make me hungrier, then throw up. When they thought I'd gotten the message, they'd dragged me out and done more tests.

I'd developed a couple strange skills while I was there. I had photographic memory, like my brain actually took pictures of stuff around me. Then, whenever I wanted I could sort of study stuff that I'd seen. Only my memory was a little cooler than the usual photos. Mine was in 3-D. I could sort of zoom in on stuff or turn the image and look at it from a different angle. It was seriously cool.

The other thing was that I could, I don't know, figure things out? I wasn't sure if it was really a power, but the first time I escaped was when I taught myself to pick locks and dissected a stolen zap-rod to create a feedback loop that would keep me from being shocked by the anklet. Not exactly something you'd expect an eight-year-old to know how to do.

How'd I do it? I have no clue. I just looked at the electric rod thing and saw how it worked. I looked at the lock and I sort of saw the whole thing. It was weird. Since then every once in a while I look at something and I sort of get this flash in my mind, like a blueprint. Then I see it again and I remember how it works. Or how do dissect and rebuild it, to get it to do what I want.

I'd never gotten so far as to actually get _outside_ of the school. My memories of my life outside the school weren't pictures. They were old, imperfect. Like old, fuzzy, black-and white pictures. All I knew was from guesses, the fuzzy memories I had, and the two experiments that I'd met. I could remember barely anything about the outside world.

I'd forgotten how beautiful it was.

**There you go, mega filler writing, with a little bit of background info mixed in. Thanks to DarkXShadower for her character ideas and TwindaughterofArtemis for hers. I will use them eventually!**

**R&R anyone?**


	5. Chapter 4: Civilization

WOW! I love you guys! You gave me so many reviews! Thank you! –Hugs for all- Everyone that reviewed gets a free review-cookie for motivating me to finish as fast as I could.

** Here we go, next chapter. And I'm hoping to get in some action. I will try to keep the fillers to a minimum, from now on.**

Chapter Four

It was a while before I saw the city. I was tired, hungry, and my wounds had begun to burn with the strain of moving for hours on end. Not that anything worse hadn't already happened to me at the school, but still.

I decided that I needed to touch down somewhere. Maybe find some food. Clothes. A place to sleep. Preferably not a hospital gown, medicine, and a dog crate.

I dropped silently into an alleyway. It was night, which meant that it was more dangerous, but at least nobody would be staring at me. After all, who cares about danger when you've spent almost eleven years fighting for your life? Nobody should be able to see my wings in the dark if I pulled them in close. And they might mistake my ragged hospital gown for a weird dress. Why all the secrecy? The bat-girl had told me, "People don't like us, because we're different. They'll never like us. So we have to hide."

I snuck around a bit until I found a clothing store. It was closed, and I circled around it until I found a back door. I broke the chain and stepped inside. The alarm beeped and an automated voice told me that I had thirty seconds to enter the code.

I stared at the device for a second trying to remember anything that might help. I'd had to disable stuff to keep lasers from triggering in some of my tests right? Suddenly a blueprint burst into in my head. I popped the front of the alarm off and went to work and a couple seconds later the alarm was disabled. I placed the front back on and went to search for some clothes that would fit me.

How'd I do it?

Like I'm gonna tell _you._

Anyway, I found a pair of black jeans with a pair of wings embossed in silver on one back pocket. I thought it was ironic, and they fit, so I took them. Next, there was a plain black T-shirt and an awesome jacket.

The jacket was a rich, dark purple, hung down to a couple inches above my knees, and it buttoned in two places in front. Once at my neck and once at my stomach. It ended up with a diamond-shaped space in between the buttons. And the space underneath the bottom one slanted out into an upside-down "v". The sleeves were just short enough that they wouldn't get in my way – right at my wrists - but it was still warm. It kept me warm, gave me freedom of movement, and it looked really, really cool.

I left my hospital gown on the counter, folded up neatly so that the gashes and bloodstains didn't show, fixed the alarm, and left.

Considerate, huh?

Next I needed food. That was easy. All I had to do was sneak around to the back of a fast-food restaurant and check all the trashcans for unfinished meals. You might be worrying about germs and stuff, but I have a really good immune system. Comes from being injected with diseases instead of vaccines, and every other day instead of every few years. It was actually a pretty small meal because my stomach was shrunken from lack of food, but you can't really say that fast food tastes good until you've just eaten it for the first time in years.

So when I'd finally eaten my fill of half-burgers, and loose french fries, I peeled out, looking for a place to sleep. I ended up on the roof of a tall building, a couple hundred feet up. It was pretty cold, but if I were attacked, it would be an easy takeoff spot.

Easy for me to say while I'm curled up in new clothes, well fed and high off of freedom.

Not so believable when I woke up, tumbling off the roof into open air, with someone on top of me holding me by the throat.

**Max's POV:**

We were flying over LA, when Angel looked up at me. I felt her gaze on my back before I heard her start talking. "Max?" she began, tentatively.

"Yeah sweetie?" I angled my wings and dropped back to fly along side of her. She looked worried.

"There's someone down there… I think they need help."

I sighed, "Sweetie, you know we can't go helping everyone that's in trouble. I'm sure that whoever it is they'll be fine."

Iggy snorted, glaring at me. It's creepy sometimes how he knows exactly where I am, even when we're flying, "Hello? What was that you did with Ella then? Huh?" He swerved away a little as he said that, as if he was expecting that to settle everything.

"That was a special case," I retorted. Angel was concentrating hard, looking down at the city. It must have been hard for her to hear the thoughts of whoever it was from all the way up in the air.

"How was Ella a special case? She was a person just like anyone else. And we _were_ going to save angel, so it wasn't like we had nothing else to do and I mean you didn't even tell me what you were doing! But you do that sometimes don't you. You just kind of go off and do your own thing and I really think we should learn to trust each other more but-" That was my Nudge, quick mouth, could drive anyone nuts. But she was sweet too, when she wasn't rambling on and on and on.

"She was being attacked," I said, cutting her off.

Angel looked up at me, eyes wide, "So is this girl."

I winced, "Sweetie…"

"By erasers."

Well _shoot_.

**Cliffie! Okay, here comes some real action, finally! What's gonna happen next? If you don't review you may never find out!**


	6. Chapter 5: Help

**New chappie! Sorry it took me so long. My computer was messed up and I couldn't load it. Thanks for all the reviews!  
**

**Disclaimer: I don't own it. Except my characters.**

**Chapter Six**

I shook my head dizzily, and snapped out my wings. I'd at least had enough forethought to cut some slashes into the back of my shirt. The jacket, I hadn't wanted to cut, partially so that I might appear more "normal" but it was being blown up by the wind so my wings were still out no problem. I gained a little altitude, barely shaking off the Eraser who, by the way, was weighing me down. Obviously, he really hadn't wanted to jump off a building. I slammed into the ground, barely keeping my feet, and flapped my wings, trying to look dangerous.

"You picked the wrong time to pick a fight with me," I snarled.

He snarled back, showing his fangs, "The school wants you back."

Suddenly my peripheral vision picked up movement. The brute hadn't come alone. I dove forwards and slapped my hands over his ears. He howled - very wolfishly in fact - and tried to swipe at me. I darted behind him, and kicked him hard between his shoulder blades. Something cracked and I smiled a little. I always felt a little better when I broke something after a stressful day.

Anyway, he went down, and instantly, the rest of the half-wolves charged me. No problem, right? Well, there were at least twenty, coming from all directions. I prepped to jump into flight, but then I saw the coppers. I hadn't heard them over the snarling. And apparently they had guns too. Big ones.

My adrenaline surged, fueled by the longest sleep I'd had in months and a still-full stomach. Back at the school, I'd been sleep-deprived, underfed, and had no confidence that I could get out alive. Now I was ready. I grinned, pulling off my jacket and tossing it lightly to the side. A couple erasers were shifting uneasily at my evil grin and smoldering eyes, but the others were getting ready. They knew what was coming. My grin grew wider and I made a "come on" gesture like they do in kung-fu movies (The fish guy was obsessed with those and I found that it aggravated erasers).

Two charged me from opposite sides and my grin disappeared into a moment of concentration. I jumped into the air, kicking one in the chest, and then flipped over him head, slamming both hands into the back of his head. He stumbled forwards, into is buddy, who flew backwards into a wall. The grin was back.

I leapt into battle, kicking one eraser behind the knees to down him, and smashing another in the back of his neck. I whirled in a rain of blows as they contracted on me, even using the same trick two more times, but their sheer number was overwhelming.

"You want me back…this badly?" I asked, panting, "I'm… flattered!"

One of them growled, "You're dead, freak! You won't escape again!" before I hit him in the nose with the heel of my hand and broke his ankle with a well-aimed kick.

"Uh-huh," I said, laughing humorlessly. No matter how well-rested and adrenaline-pumped I was, their numbers were beginning to invoke a twinge of fear.

Then a voice popped into my head, _Hi? Um, hang on a couple more minutes, 'k? We're coming to help._

I suddenly had an overwhelming desire to start screaming.

**Max's POV:**

"She's being attacked by _erasers_!?" I was skeptical.

"Uh-huh."

Finally, Gazzy broke the silence, "I think we should help whoever it is, and because, you know, Angel can tell that kind of thing."

That means, "We should do what Angel says because she's our freaky mind-reader and if she wants to she can control you and make you do it anyway." Just FYI.

I grimaced, "Alright sweetie. We'll go help this girl."

She smiled - angelically of course - and swerved to the north, "She's down here."

I followed, holding back a couple bad words. Cuz she's my baby right? And also because she'd hear them in my mind if I didn't try not to think them anyway. Confusing? I know.

Fang floated beside me. Fittingly, he hadn't said anything yet, but finally he broke the silence, "Why is she being attacked?"

He was talking to all of us, but Angel answered, "She doesn't know. But she's scared. She was…um, talking back to them and stuff up until a minute ago, but now she's just scared."

I bit my lip, thinking, "Can you tell if she's…like us?" That's bird-kid-speak for "a genetic mutant freak." Seriously people, if you're going to read this, at least learn the language!

Angel shook her head, blond curls bobbing in the wind, "No. She's just afraid. I can't tell anything else"

Fang thought for a second, "Could be a trap."

"Yeah, but we're already going to go help aren't we? So, like, shouldn't we help her first and then we can ask her? I mean, if she's a trap we can leave or run or whatever, and if she's normal then It doesn't much matter, we just save her and leave right? Or if she's like us, then she'll really need help. But I didn't think anyone besides us could get out. So any way it goes, we're helping her right?"

I rubbed my forehead, wondering how long it would take for my ears to start bleeding under her nonstop chatter, "Yeah, Nudge, I guess. Hey, Ig. Angle up a couple degrees and veer left. You're going to run into a skyscraper."

We got to the ground pretty fast, tucked in our wings, hiding them, and went to find the site of the attack. It wasn't hard. All we had to do was follow the noise of breaking bones.

When we got there, we found the place a mess, blood and unconscious erasers everywhere. Then I saw the girl we were supposedly rescuing. Whaling on a dozen erasers at once.

**Not so much of a cliffie this chapter, but I'll try to get some more up soon. Please review. I'm open to any ideas.**


	7. Chapter 6: Revelation

**Still alive, barely. But anyway, this is the last of my partially pre-written chapters, so I'm gonna need a lot more help and motivation from here on out. Just giving you guys a heads up.**

**Disclaimer: Nope, I still haven't spontaneously been granted the rights to Maximum ride, sadly.**

**Chapter Seven**

I'd pulled in my wings hard against my body, so that they couldn't be hurt. My wounds from the previous day's escape were all reopening, so I was bleeding really badly. My ankle and ribs were also throbbing. After the voice in my head, I focused on my fear, letting it consume everything except for a tiny part of my mind that focused on battle and strategy. I hoped that would confuse the telepath (if it was a telepath…I'd seen some weird stuff so I couldn't be sure) enough that they wouldn't be able to tell who I was. They were probably after me too, right?

How can someone sleep through the sound of breaking bones and screams? Maybe normal people are more hardcore than I thought.

Off topic. Sorry.

Anyway, I was feeling pretty dizzy from my wounds, so I started concentrating on one side, trying to break though the diminishing circle. It was actually working too - I had only two erasers left blocking me, both obviously elite fighters. They were holding their own against me. Barely.

That's when a group of kids ran into the alleyway. In all honesty, my next thought was the oh-so-eloquent, teen favorite: _Crap._

I dove under a backhanded punch, and yelled to them, trying my best to let the fear show in my voice, "Get out of here! Run!" It was actually hard to sound afraid, since I'd done so well disguising it the last several years.

There were six, and two of them looked younger than ten. The rest looked around my age, but that didn't mean that they could fight. Most _normal_ people can't, right? What were they doing out so late at night anyway? Or was it early morning? I hadn't been able to check since my rude awakening.

Well, crazy kids, the two tallest ones charged immediately. Were they, like karate black belts or something? That still didn't mean they could fight erasers.

Actually, It turns out they were pretty good.

They had the remaining five erasers on the ground in about thirty seconds. I hung back, pretending to be too hurt to fight, only throwing an occasional punch when an eraser got too close, aiming badly and letting their blows land most of the time. Never let someone see how strong you really are until you need to.

The last erasers were down when the girl (the crazy karate one) turned on me suddenly and grabbed the front of my shirt. "We have some stuff we want to ask you," she told me, "We ask, you answer. Without lies. Understand?"

I swallowed hard and made my voice shake a little when I answered, giving it a deeper, slower pitch to disguise it, "N-no, not really."

Then I ducked under her arm and ran for my life.

**I was going to end the chapter here, but I saw the word count and thought it wouldn't be fair to give you a chapter less than a page long.**

I didn't stop running until I was almost three miles away. When I stopped, I was nearly breathing hard, I looked around me for a couple seconds, then snapped out my wings and took to the air. By some miracle, I'd managed to snatch up my jacket before I was attacked by the girl, but I wasn't putting it back on yet.

Had she really meant to attack me? I couldn't think of any other reason for her to grab me by the front of my shirt and yell in my face, but something was off from the whole setup. Why would they attack their own comrades? What sort of mutant hybrids were they? Why didn't the other's fight as well? Why were they all so young? Were they even a part of the School's messed-up agenda or a way-too-unlikely chance encounter?

I glided down to rest in some trees, but I'd already gotten enough sleep on the roof. More sleep than in, oh, about five years. So even though I settled down, my mind stayed on red alert.

Time for some research.

I closed my eyes slowly and thought back to when the kids showed up. The picture was dark and a little blurry, from my primal "fear", but I could see them well enough. There were six of them, and – oh – I hadn't noticed the dog before. Okay, a couple of crazy karate kids with their siblings and a dog. Not surprised at all by a dozen werewolves, or a blood-bathed girl in the dead of night. Right.

They had to be in on the school's attempt to get me back. Somehow, they were connected. My forehead crinkled as I zoomed in, memorizing each face, as well as I could in the blurry shadows. Then I moved slowly around the girl, the leader. No fangs, no claws, to tracking equipment. She wasn't wearing a white coat, and she didn't seem to have any extra eyes or limbs.

Wait – I moved back a little. No normal human could have a back that misshapen. When she'd landed, it had been close to normal, but as she fought, sometimes it flared out a little. It bulged in odd places, making her look like a hunchback. Was she some kind of cripple? No, now I saw it on all the others, too. Even the youngest girl.

I scoured my memories for a clue, any other clue. There! While the taller boy was lunging, the one with dark hair, something had come loose from the back of his shirt.

I struggled to make it out, because when I zoomed in too far the whole picture became a blurry mess. Finally, the shape cleared a bit, and I saw that it hadn't fallen off of his shirt. It came from the bulges underneath.

A single black feather.

**This was actually a pretty hard chapter to write. While I was writing it I remembered seeing birds steady themselves by spreading their wings, as a sort of reflex to keep their balance. I was trying to put that into words, on a human, under a T-shirt. I ended up making them sound like utter freaks. Sorry about that.**

**So… now our newest recruit knows who our beloved main characters are. What will she do next?**

**Well don't look at me. How should I know?**

**If you have any ideas please let me know, because my story is coming purely from chocolate and sleep deprivation.**

**Review?**


	8. Chapter 7: Stars

**Now I'm actually writing from scratch, so getting a chapter done this quickly may become a bit of a rare thing for me. Just warning you guys.**

**I can't think of any creative ways to say this so… Disclaimer: I don't own maximum ride.**

**Anyway, I've been doing a little filler for this chapter, because I couldn't think of anything else to lead up to my next event. I hope you enjoy it anyway!**

**Chapter 7**

Even with my enhanced brain functions and problem solving abilities, it took me almost a full minute to process what I'd just remembered. Other experiments. Who had attacked the erasers. Who had protected me.

Other escapees.

But, of course, that was impossible. Almost instantly, I realized that couldn't be true. The whitecoats took pride in never letting their experiments escape. A group that large couldn't possibly get out. I mean, I managed it, barely, but I couldn't have gotten anyone else out. And I knew that the younger ones couldn't have handled a dozen erasers, which means they'd be deadweight and a hostage risk. It wasn't possible.

I knew that there had been something, though, and I knew they were connected to the school. I needed to find them again. Get one on their own and get some answers. But how to find them again? What if they found me first? I hadn't thought to check if they were following me. A sudden paranoia swept through me and I spun around, eyes flickering from tree too tree, half expecting them to pop out and attack me.

With an effort, I calmed myself again.

_I need space,_ I thought. The trees felt like they were closing around me, new cage. A larger, more comfy cage, certainly, but still a cage. I needed to get out. I took off straight from the branch, shooting through the trees, scratching my face and tearing a couple feathers loose from my wings.

And it felt so good.

What's flying like? Hmmm… I'll see if I can explain. Have you ever fallen off of something high in the air? Like a tree or something? Now, do you remember what it felt like? If you haven't, go jump out of a tree. I'll wait.

…

Better?

Ok, so remember that split instant when you weren't touching anything and your heart was racing and adrenaline was pounding in your veins and the wind was rushing past your face. Before you hit the ground and you almost felt like you were floating, but really, really fast and it was scary, but exhilarating at the same time? Now imagine that you could control it, that you were going up instead of down, that it wasn't quite as scary, that you were going a hundred times faster, and… never mind I can't describe it.

That's why they call it indescribable, right?

Anyway, I shot straight out of the trees, muscles straining, and breathed a sigh of relief. The grove dropped away behind me and it was nothing but me and the stars, slowly coming out from behind the clouds. Or maybe it was smog, but whatever it was, it was beginning to clear away a little, and I could see the stars.

_I wonder if I flew high enough, if I could touch a star…_

It was a rhetorical question, stupid.

But suddenly, to my mind, it was an excellent idea. I flew straight up as fast as I could. The ground fell out from under me, and I dove into the lowest layer of clouds. The cold dampness made me shiver, but I paused to do a barrel roll, just enjoying the freedom.

The misty grayness stretched out on all sides, making me feel very alone, but the feeling almost fueled my giddiness. I stretched out my hand in front of me, sifting the fog through my fingers, watching my wings create little eddies and swirls in the grayness: a little darker here, a little whiter there.

Then the grayness exploded around me, streaming away, until I looked down and it was also receding behind me. I was out of the clouds and I found myself staring at the stars, clearer than I'd ever seen them.

I'd seen stars from windows in the school, as I was hustled from experiment to experiment. Then, they'd relaxed me. When I was staring at them from my cage, they'd given me hope and a certain peace that was rare in the nightmare that was my life. As I was dragged to my cage, half-unconscious after a hard day, they gave me energy, and the will to keep moving forward.

This was better, so much better than the glimpses. Now, my whole vision was filled with a sky full of sparkling jewels. I was so startled by the utter brightness and splendor of it all, that for a second my wings stilled and I just hung there, momentum carrying my up. By the time I started to fall, I'd regained my senses and my wings flapped again, strongly. I kept flying up, farther and farther from the world, reaching for the stars.

Gah, that was sappy.

Anyway, I just kept flying up, farther and farther, until even the clouds were far behind me. Was it the thrill of the freedom making me breathless? The picture spun a little, my wings having to strain to bring me higher. I laughed breathlessly, feeling the thin air. _How far can I go? Just a little more…_

My lungs were beginning to ache, but I pressed on, _I was built for things like this. I know I can._ My vision flashed, red then black, but I just smiled. I belonged up here, among the stars, away from the hateful world.

When my eyes fluttered open again, I was falling through the clouds, my wings folded to my sides.

I blinked twice, _when did I start to fall?_ I skimmed my memories quickly, but all I could remember was the exhilaration, then …nothing. _It must have been the thin air._

Oddly, even though I was falling faster than I could fly, I was still happy. I let myself free-fall for another couple of seconds, exploding through the bottom of the clouds, trailing wisps of mist behind me.

The ground rushed up at me and I counted down to the impact, my words torn away by the wind, "Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five."

I snapped my wings open on five, muscles suddenly on fire. I was somehow grinning even through I was still spiraling downwards. One experimental flap, then I angled my wings, into a dive that sent me shooting parallel to the ground. I flipped over a couple seconds later, diving upside-down, then straightened and flipped again, so I was falling feet-first. A second from impact, I flapped three times, slowing myself enough that I wouldn't break my legs.

I landed in a clearing in the same grove of trees, stumbling and falling onto one knee from the impact. I was feeling pretty good about myself by then, a grin plastered all over my face, but the grin slid off like water when I heard the applause.

I spun, my mind already whirling through a dozen different possibilities and dropped into a battle stance. By the time I saw I saw who it was, I was ready to lunge, but the sight brought me up short again.

She had black hair, down to the small of her back and jet-black eyes. Her black clothes had blended into the shadows, so that I hadn't seen her at first. Her smile widened over pointed teeth as she stepped into the moonlight. Leathery bat's wings stretched behind her.

"Hey… Miss me?"

_It can't be…_

"Dharc!?"

**Dun, dun, dun!!!! Is it a cliffie? Probably not much of one… But anyway, last we knew, Dharc was dead, killed by erasers at least a year ago. So what happened? Anyone got ideas?**


	9. Chapter 8: Memory

**Wah! I'm so so so so so so so sorry for not updating for so long! I feel horrible… -sniff-**

**You see, I got sick for a while then my computer got a virus and I had to take care of that then I had to catch up on a bunch of stuff then I went on a ski trip then I had to try to confirm a bunch of stuff with Dharc so in short IT'S NOT ALL MY FAULT.**

**Yes, it's partially my fault. I was lazy with this one, but I'm hoping the end product will be worth it.**

**Oh yeah… and I don't own Maximum ride.**

**Enjoy!**

**Chapter 8**

It took me a full thirty seconds to remember to breathe. After that, another ten seconds to get my mouth closed. A few seconds later, I remembered to blink. After a systems check, all of my vital functions were working again and I double-checked the picture in front of me.

She was still there.

She had leaned against a tree, waiting for me to get myself under control again, leathery bats-wings folded neatly at her back. I checked. The same black wings, patterned with the unique web of red along the bone ridges. Same straight black hair, though it was neater, cropped in a straight line and longer than I remembered, touching the small of her back. Last time I'd seen her, it had been barely past her shoulders, ragged and torn. Her eyes were the same dark blue, near black. Her skin was the same pale shade, maybe just a touch darker. Her smile revealed that she had the same sharp teeth, fangs almost.

She was different too, though. Her hair longer, her skin slightly darker, maybe a bit taller. But under that, she was calm. For the first time since I don't know when, her eyes held no trace of red. It had been a defensive mechanism that the whitecoats had given her. She often went into killing rages when she was fed up with the tests, so they injected something into her eyes that caused them to change colors when she was close to losing control on her anger.

And here she was.

"Dharc?" My voice was small, thin and barely above a whisper.

Her eyes flashed with something… amusement maybe? "Cool, huh?" she said, her voice smooth, in bell-tones that the scientists had copied from erasers, "I'm back."

"But you died! I heard you die! They confirmed it!"

"What?" For the first time since I'd landed, she looked a little confused, "Oh. The cracked wall, the blood, I must have screamed at some point, the explosion…oh." Then she began to laugh.

"What's so funny?!" I wasn't feeling in the mood for games, "You've been dead for at least a year!"

Dharc looked at me gently, "I don't know what they told you, but I never died. After the erasers split us up I escaped out a window."

"But-"

The memories were rushing back, overwhelming me. I suddenly found myself back in my cage, Dharc next to me, in her own small cage.

"Hsst. Hey." The words were so small I could barely hear them. I glanced at Dharc and she rubbed her left eye then blinked twice. It had taken us a long time to work out the unspoken code. Those movements equated to something like _Is it safe to talk?_ I turned my back to the security cameras and twitched my index fingers. _Yes._

She continued in a voice quieter than our breathing, lips not moving, "We need to move tomorrow. The others are ready."

I scuffed my feet in our _and?_ gesture and she continued, "First thing, right when they come to get us. Do you still remember how to do the locks?"

I twitched my index fingers again then tapped the lock with my elbow. "I should be able to," I hissed back, then "Why tomorrow?"

"They're going to dissect him tomorrow," Dharc told me, nodding at another cage across the walkway. I let my eyes wander to the row and nodded slightly when my eyes landed on a combination who called himself Dawn. The whitecoats didn't know about it. They called him Experiment 6392. And why had he picked a girl's name anyway? But we knew. A stupid thing, I thought. Who would want a name when it's never used? Why did we even try to hold onto our last shreds of humanity? I had stuck with the name – no, the label – that the whitecoats had given me. I couldn't remember my original name anyway.

But maybe, just maybe, if I got out…

"Can he fight?"

Dharc twitched a "yes" back to me. And I mouthed to her, _Then let's go at the time of his name._

My memory skipped and when it cleared the sun was just peeking over the hills.

My head broke through a glass case of medical equipment.

The eraser that had thrown me stood between me and Dharc, blocking my escape. I wiped the blood from my eyes and pulled myself back up. Dharc's eyes met mine looking around the bulky, half-morphed wolf.

The message was clear, even without signals or code, _Run_.

Her face was bloody, just like mine, one arm limp, her wings crumpled behind her, rips in the delicate leathery skin. One eye was swollen closed and turning a bruise-purple. The her open eye was burning bloody red. The color swamped her ordinary blue and left her looking murderous. But I knew. She was scared for her life. For all of our lives.

I knew I should run, but I also knew that Dharc would be on her own as soon as I did. They had almost finished their experiments on her but they had to keep me alive as long as they could. I looked towards the corridor that Dawn had run into. I glanced back at the eraser, then Dharc, then behind me.

I made up my mind.

I snatched up a syringe from the shattered case behind me and jammed it into the eraser's arm, squeezing the plunger down. The label was unintelligible scientist-speak but I hoped it was something deadly.

I dove under the eraser's arm and grabbed Dharc's arm, pulling her with me, through another doorway. She wrenched her arm out of my grasp and we ran together. "Why didn't you run?" She demanded and I shook my head, unable to explain.

Erasers poured from doorways on both sides of us. Two grabbed my arms and wrenched me backwards, off of my feet. I fought with all my strength, but I couldn't seem to twist free. Before I could register what was happening, my wings were pinned, my feet lifted off the floor and a clawed hand closed on my throat.

"Stop!" said the voice, smooth and sweet. A voice that was near impossible to resist. Dharc stopped and turned.

I knew her eyes were taking everything in. The blocked corridors, the sheer number of erasers, the electric glow on each doorknob. And she saw me a prisoner. I smiled as much as I could in my position and shrugged a little sheepishly. _Sorry_, I mouthed, _I'll catch up in a minute_.

"Choose," the eraser said, "If you attempt to run or free your… friend, then I'll snap her neck before you take two steps. You know I can."

Dang, these guys were smarter that the ordinary erasers. They knew at least a little about loyalty. And they knew how to use it as a weapon.

I locked my gaze with her. I'm not sure what my eyes were showing, but silently I pleaded with her. I wasn't even sure what I wanted her to do. Run and we might both die. Stay and she would definitely die, but I would probably live. But as we watched each other, I silently begged her to make the choice and make it soon. Suspense is almost as bad as dying.

She looked back around the hall, contemplating. I felt the half-hand-half-paw begin to cut off my air and I choked for a second. "Choose!" the eraser said, but this time it wasn't sweet. It held a snarl and a promise of death. I grabbed at the hand, tugging it away from my neck, and took a ragged breath. It was taking a lot of strength to keep that hand away from my windpipe.

Dharc looked at me one more time, her eyes swirling with red and blue, her fangs bloody.

"I'm sorry", she whispered.

And then she turned and ran.

I bit the hand, and it released me. Half the erasers pounded after her, roaring. She had called their bluff. I was too useful to die yet and she knew it. So now what? What was the plan? The look I had seen in her eyes told me everything. This was the end of the line. She had no plan.

The next couple minutes were a dazed blur. I screamed my throat raw and fought until my hands were covered in blood that might have been mine. My arm snapped, then snapped again and bone splinters poked out of it. My hair and feathers were torn out. Knuckles stripped to the bone, feet aching. My hospital gown was torn to shreds. My face became a bloody mess. Both my eyes swelled closed, but I kept fighting, blind.

A hand grabbed the back of my head and my forehead cracked the concrete wall. Then I was slammed sideways again, this time into an electrified door. Again. And again. I bit back a scream the first time, but by the end of the pounding I didn't have the strength the cry out anyway.

And then I felt the tears welling up. I forced them back but as the world darkened around me I felt a liquid that wasn't blood dripping down my cheeks.

A scream and a crash from far away. Howls of delight.

My memory turned to darkness.

**Woooooo! A kinda cliffie in her memory that's kinda cliffie because there's suspense but sorta not because it's only a memory!**

**Oh, and I don't own Dharc, Dawn or any of DarkXShadower's characters. You may have guessed, but they belong to DarkXShadower, who, by the way, has an awesome name.**

**Anyway.**

**I'm really glad I finished this chapter because it was one of the most difficult ones yet. **

**What happens next? Should I continue the memory? Go back to the present? What happens between Dharc and me now that we've been reunited? Please review to tell me what you think.**


	10. Chapter 9: Reunited

**Sorry sorry **_**sorry**_** for taking so long to update. I really meant to put it up sooner but I was forgetting and then I was busy and then Dharc wouldn't mail m back when I was asking if she was okay with the back history since we were doing that together and now I'm rambling but the point is: I'm sorry for not putting it up earlier but it's up now so I hope you enjoy.**

**Oh, and since debookworm01 suggested it, the memory will be in italics.**

**I don't own Maximum Ride.**

**Chapter 9**

_The rest of the memory passed in a blur._

_I had awakened in a new cage in a high-security ward with two extra locks on the cage doors. The moment I touched them electricity made the hair on my arms stand on end._

_I had done a tactical, even though I already knew what I'd find. Four cameras staring blankly from each corner of the room, two guards outside the only door, the locks and the floors outside the cages electrified no windows. Microphones and hidden video feed from each cage. There was no way out and no hope of escape._

_On the upside, most of the experiments in the room had working brains._

_Now I could have a conversation with either an oozing, slug-like thing on one side of me or a pair of kids with blue bug eyes and their lungs suck on the outsides of their bodies on the other side. Or maybe the boy across the isle that had hands in place of his feet and gray fur sprouting from where his eyes should have been._

_My crate, of course, had nothing in it but the nasty medicine that they reserved for punishment. I dumped the contents out into the isle and watched the electric current boil it._

_In the next several days I had spent most of my time in the cage recuperating except for the occasional test. There had been a break in which I was escorted down a hall and shown a room with dried bloodstains all over the cracked walls. There were soot marks, broken glass, and a general aura of destruction. But what caught my eye wasn't the clear evidence of an explosion. It was a tiny scrap of something under a pile of ash. I kneeled to pick it up while my escort was busy listening to report on what they did "with the body"._

_It was a tiny scrap of leathery bat's wing, next to a chip of charred bone. I picked them up and when I got back to my cell I hid my face from the cameras and silently cried. That was the last time I ever cried._

_The next day they took me back to the labs full-time._

_During a treadmill test, I saw a whitecoat that I knew well. I took a deep breath, the bone biting into my hand – I hadn't let go of it since I picked it up. "Tell your bosses…" I thought for a moment, trying for the right words, "Tell them that I get it. I won't try again. I got the message."_

_I got an electric shock for "acting as though I were a sentient and equal" but the message was passed on and after a few more months of my best behavior, I was transferred out of high security._

_Their message had been this: If you ever try to escape again you will meet the same fate as your friend. Death is the only thing that waits for you outside these walls._

_Not in those exact words, but it was pretty dang close._

_So I stayed. And I waited. And I prayed that I'd been wrong. I hoped for something, anything that would tell me that my friends had survived. Any of them. But nothing came. I sank into depression and the whitecoats recorded it, gleeful at the chance to study my emotions._

_Time passed._

_Months, then a year._

_I was angry often and I fought with my captors, but I never attempted escape again. Until now._

_I'm not really sure what happened to me to make me try again. I had pretty much resigned to dying in a cage. But then something odd happened. It started off slowly. They began running more tests, pushing me harder. They had to restart my heart twice, Once after I drowned in a test, and once after I collapsed in the wind tunnel. Then there came surgeries, then surgeries without any anesthetic. They would strap me down and insert things, then take them away again a week or two later._

_After that came the lights._

_It was weird at first, kind of funny. Relaxing, even, some of the time. I would get strapped to a table, then they would flash lights, play music and noises from the speakers, talk to me quietly in soothing voices. Sometimes their words made no sense. Sometimes they would tell me to relax. Sometimes they would tell me that they were friends. Whenever they did that, I would laugh and spit in their faces._

_But afterwards, I always felt peaked, irritated. I fought more and more often. I guess eventually everyone reaches a breaking point. Between the tiresome lightshows, the surgeries, and their ever-increasing tests, I suppose I just snapped._

_I had been good that week and everything was "normal" as far as they were concerned, but I'd just come back from a light show where an old whitecoat had crooned in my ear about my "purpose" for three hours. So I was back in my cage, my rage all bottled up with nowhere to go._

_I broke. No, I didn't just break. I shattered. My mind went to pieces and I guess I went kind of berserk._

You know the rest.

The memory ended.

I looked back at Dharc, who was leaning against the tree still. The memory must have taken about three seconds, real time, but I felt tired as though I'd just gone through it all again. "How?" It wasn't really a question.

"How what?"

"How did you survive. How did you get out. How did you stay out. How did you find me again. How did you –" A split second pause, then I asked what I was really thinking, "_Why didn't you come back?_"

She looked almost shocked, "You know I couldn't have… They would have killed me on sight."

"You could have gotten me a message."

"No." Dharc looked down, "I couldn't."

"Oh?"

"Yeah," A hint of a smile passed over her face, "I was a little busy."

"How so?"

"Fighting for my life."

There was a pause, "Oh."

She nodded.

I looked at her out of the corner of my eye, "The usual then?"

Another pause, longer than the first, then we were both laughing. And I don't mean "ha ha" laughing. It was full out hysterics. I don't think either of us had any idea why, but I might have been a combination of the fact that I'd escaped, gotten attacked, seen some other experiments, flown to the stars, and reunited with my best friend who was supposed to be dead. It had been a crazy day.

I managed to bring my laughter under control, then Dharc sat down next to me, "Oh and…for a while I was pretty sure you were dead too. Up until only maybe a month ago."

"Why?"

"Do you know anyone else that's survived two attempts at escape? And… there was a body."

"Huh?" I had the feeling she was being cryptic just to annoy me. Just like old times. But this new information was enough to keep me from making a sarcastic comment, "Body?"

She took a long time to answer, "They flew a plane over badwater basin and… dumped a body into the water about a week after. It had your face and hair and everything. The wings were broken and the neck was snapped. We all thought you'd been killed."

"We-? You mean Dawn and the others are alive?"

"I think. I left them about a week back. They'd checked into a boarding school after Flareos learned how to hack the ATM."

"So they're okay. All of them?"

"Yeah."

I sighed and leaned back against a tree, _Thank God._

"You owe me a story, you know." Dharc said.

I blinked and looked at her, "Excuse me? How do I owe you anything?"

"I told you how the others are," She got an evil smile which I took to mean that she wasn't going to let me out of this one, "Spill it. How'd you get out on your own? What happened after we left?"

I pulled an indignant look onto my face, acting offended, "That was hardly a _story_. If I'm going to tell you anything, then I want to hear your story first."

"What?"

I grinned evilly, imitating her, "Spill it. What happened after you left?"

She sighed and made herself comfortable, "It's a long story…"

I closed my eyes, finally at ease, listening as she began.

**Augh. This chapter sucked. But whatever, now I might get to get some real action again.**

**And if you're wondering what Dharc's story was, it's not done yet.**** Me and DarkXShadower are kind of… co-writing the back story. Her fanfic may explain a few things that I'm too lazy to write down here. Here's a link to anyone who wants it: ****.net/s/5426147/1/Dharc_Experiment_From_the_Shadows****.**

**I need help thinking of what to do next because I'm starting to dry up on ideas. Help?**


	11. Chapter 10: Search

**Somewhere around the middle of this chapter I got a little bored so my writing became a little more screwy and random than usual. Sorry. I knew what I was going to have at the beginning and the end but the middle… I didn't know what to write so I went with the spur of the moment sugar high stuff I usually rewrite.**

**I don't own anything, blah, blah, blah. **

**Chapter 10**

"Now what?"

It was the question that had been bothering me since I had escaped. I'd escaped. It was great. But what was I going to do now? Stay homeless, on the run? Try to get myself adopted; pass as a normal person? Tear my wings off? Die happy?

What I really wanted to do was go to the authorities and blow the story out into the open. But Dharc had told me that we needed to stay hidden and for what it was worth, I understood what she meant. And besides, who could I trust? For all I knew, everyone out there was corrupt, working with the School to make kids like me.

Dying? I wasn't even sure if I knew how. I was made a survivor, built to endure to harshest conditions that the whitecoats could dream up. I could stay functioning up to a month and a half without anything to eat. I once walked a steady pace on the treadmill for 37 hours. I could hold my breath for over two minutes. I could _fly_.

And there was no way I would ever tear my wings off. They were just as much a part of me as my other limbs. If your legs made you a freak, would you tear them off? Never again walk or run? No way.

So what would I do?

"I think we should go after those other kids."

"What?"

"You know," Dharc tapped her chin with one finger, "You said those other kids had wings, or at least feathers. They must have some info on the School that they wouldn't mind sharing. We can work it out from there."

I shook my head, "They might be working for the whitecoats. I could have made a mistake. And at the very least, with such a large group, they'll track us easier."

Dharc sat quietly thinking for a minute, "But if such a large group has evaded capture for as long as they have, then they must be able to extend that protection to us."

"Or maybe they're just ninjas."

"That too."

Within minutes, my first sanctuary in the clearing had dropped behind us, becoming just another piece of land far below us. We were flying back towards where I'd seen the group last, but we had nothing to go on other than that.

"So, what if we find them and they refuse to help?" Dharc called to me.

I made a _duh_ face at her, "We beat it out of them and run."

"If you say so."

We lapsed back into silence for the rest of the flight. The low clouds provided enough cover from both the sun and any prying eyes below, but we stayed low enough for me to scan the skyline and ground, zooming in with my memory if I spotted anything out of the ordinary. Well, actually it was when I spotted anything that Dharc thought was unusual. This was all new to me, so I wasn't even really sure what to look for.

After a half an hour, I spotted the alleyway where I'd been attacked. Or I thought it was the right place. Most of the city looked the same to me but there was a clothing store and a giant yellow "M" nearby with tall buildings all around.

We landed inconspicuously, folded out wings, and then wandered the city for the next several hours. Nothing happened except a pair of teenage girls saying something to me that sounded a little bit like "Ohmigawd-that-jacket-is-so-cool. Where-did-you-get-it? I-gotta-go-but-nice-meeting-you!" Except faster.

We didn't get any leads so by the time night fell both our feet were aching from walking around all day.

"Where are we going to spend the night?" I asked. It was kind of weird wondering where I was going to sleep, because before then I'd always known it would be a dog crate or not at all.

"Alleyway or subway tunnel probably," Dharc told me and waved me over to a stand where a guy was selling some kind of meat on a bun. She bought two with some money that she'd had in her pocket. "But first, dinner," she said tossing one to me, "Your first hamburger."

After we'd finished eating, she led me into the nearest subway tunnel. We dropped down next to the tracks and walked carefully down the side of the tunnel, and then she pulled me through another tunnel/doorway into a cavernous room.

"Most major cities have and underground spot like this," she explained, leaning against the wall, "I spent a week in one in Florida recovering from a stab wound."

I turned to look around. The cavern was lit poorly, but I could see people milling around. All ages, all sizes. There were kids that looked half-starved, and old people with grocery carts. I wondered vaguely how they'd gotten their luggage here across subway tracks.

"Nice bunch," I started to say, but then something caught my eye. Or my ear, I wasn't sure which one came first. Maybe it was the flash of blonde-streaked-pink hair. Or maybe it was the slight bulge in the back of her windbreaker. Quite possibly, it was her voice, "Sure, Fang. You want to check into some ritzy hotel somewhere? Show me the money." _Fang? That guy's name is _Fang_? That's a new one._ But that was beside the point. It was them.

I nudged Dharc with my foot, and twitched my fingers for her to stand up. She looked up at me and I nodded in the right direction. Her eyes narrowed, then she threw herself to the side just as something slammed into me from behind.

I felt a hand spin me around and my eyes focused on the face of the girl. It was definitely the same one. Even her grip on my collar was the same, "Are you following us?"

My instincts kicked in before I had a chance to register the question. I twisted down out of her grip and slammed the heel of my hand into her stomach. My forearm snapped up to block her punch then I twisted my arm, grabbing her wrist. Going with the momentum, I swung my leg through her ankles and as she fell I twisted her arm up behind her head, trapping her.

She swung and elbow back, catching me in the ribs, and I let go of her, dropping back. She tried to circle around me, but I cut her off, keeping her whole group in my line of sight. The girl lunged, knocking me off balance and I rolled over backwards, ending up on one knee. _Give me something to work with. Come on, what do I _do_?_

Her voice was a low growl, "Who are you? Who sent you? Answer me!"

I stood up slowly, eyes locked on something I'd just seen. This time her punch landed squarely on my jaw, but I didn't flinch. I looked at the feather on the ground between us, then locked eyes with her.

"I'm one of you," I said.

Then I snapped out my wings.

Yeah, I pulled out my wings in the middle of a crowd of people that, up until now, I'd totally forgotten about. Not one of my smartest moves.

But at the moment I felt totally cool. Avenging angel. Something from the dark side of heaven. It was the most daring thing I think I've ever done, besides maybe breaking out of the School. I felt the stares of everyone in the cave/room. The rest of her group was staring at me with unmasked amazement, and even the girl was a bit slack-jawed. I felt so _epic_.

I felt rather than saw Dharc step up beside me and open her own bat's wings. Now I had to fight back a grin. Around us there was complete pandemonium, but between the three of us, it was deadly calm.

"I think it would be to both of our interests for you to not kill us," Dharc said quietly.

The girl nodded warily, "What's your names?"

"Dharc."

I froze. I didn't have a name, and there was no way I was going to take the title that the whitecoats gave to me. What kind of name would fit? I didn't even know any real names. But the girl was watching me, I had to come up with something quick.

Then a jumble of meaningless letters floated into my mind's eye. Meaningless letters that had become, more or less part of my name in the last ten years. A42MiK9. I smiled.

"Call me Mik."

**So she finally comes up with a name. And meets the flock. And gets attacked (again) and starts learning about the world. And now we're on the path to the story that I originally planned out so many months ago. Finally. You know, I didn't plan any of this story. I'm just writing whatever I feel like until it gets to the last three or four chapters which I actually **_**did**_** plan. Maybe that's a good thing?**

**Who else here writes without caring where the story actually goes? And how many people here write like crazy and realize the story has gone totally off track? And who can tell me what to do next? I wrote this in one night, which means it was written while I was sleep deprived and on a sugar high. I'm stuck. What to do what to do?**

**Review!**


	12. Chapter 11: Meeting

**Woo hooo! I managed to finish another chapter in one night! Another chapter in which I started out completely clueless on what I wanted to do.**

**This one is a little short, a bit filler, but pretty much needed for the story to work.**

**James Patterson, I am not. His books, I don't own.**

**Chapter 11**

**Max's POV**

Fang glanced sidelong at Max, the corners of his mouth silently quirking up.

"What the Ell-hay are you laughing at?" I growled, giving him my signature glare, "What's so funny?"

Fang seemed to think for a minute, choosing his words carefully, "This is the first time I've seen you so quickly outmatched."

"Shut up." My teeth gritted. That was exactly what I had been stewing over for the last hour. Whatever training this girl had could be more deadly than what erasers learned. Watching her fight, it had been mesmerizing, more like she was dancing than fighting. The way she moved was as though every step, every reaction, was choreographed into a whole.

I saw the rest of the flock watching me and dropped the thoughts. Now was time for a plan. Because I always had a plan, right?

"Okay, listen up. Yeah, I'm letting these two strangers go with us, but that doesn't mean they're part of our group. I want everyone keeping an eye on them at all times. Angel, have you picked up anything?"

Angel's forehead crinkled delicately, "I guess. There's nothing really bad. Thy just want to stay away from the school and they think we can help or something. But…" She frowned, looking perplexed.

"Sweetie?"

"That one girl, Mik, there's something off about her thoughts. Like, she's thinking normal like us, then her thoughts sort of blank out. She gets this look on her face and then I can't read her anymore."

I glanced over at the two girls, sitting against the wall, talking between each other quietly. This was a disturbing turn of events, "Can you read her now?"

Angel's curls bobbed as she nodded, "Yeah. They're just talking about stuff."

"Okay," I rubbed my forehead, "Keep watching her."

"Does that mean I'm free?" Iggy's voice dripped sarcasm.

"Shut up Iggy. You know what I mean."

**Mik's POV**

"You know," Dharc commented thoughtfully, "This is the first time I've seen you take so long to take down a single opponent."

"Shut up," I told Dharc, but I didn't really mean it, "She was good. I got lucky and caught her off guard. I guess surviving outside of the school for years on end has its pluses."

"I can't think of any negatives."

"True."

We sat in silence for a couple minutes watching the group of kids whisper among themselves, then Dharc turned to me again, "When did you name yourself? I thought you didn't want one."

"Um…" I chuckled nervously, "I didn't really think of it until maybe five minutes ago."

"You mean that was off the top of your head?" Dharc sounded disdainful and I grinned, "You mean you just came up with something on the spot?"

"Pretty much."

Dharc sighed and leaned back against the wall again, "You're hopeless."

"What are we going to about them?"

Dharc caught on immediately, "We have to stay on guard. Just because they're letting us stay with them doesn't mean they trust us. We'll have to watch our backs."

I nodded, "Keep an eye on the little girl. I think she might be able to read thoughts."

"You're kidding right?"

"Not at all," I frowned, carefully blanking my thoughts, and she looked over at me in faint surprise. I let my mind go back to normal and turned back to Dharc, "You know how the whitecoats made me do those weird tests where I had to make my mind blank? Well I've been practicing that and every time I do, she looks at me all wired like I just poked her or something."

"Huh." Dharc frowned, "You'll have to teach me how to do that sometime."

"Aye, aye captain."

I was about to say more, but Max had stood up and was walking towards us. "You better get some sleep. We'll be logging major hours tomorrow."

"Okay" I said and curled up on the floor as she walked away. _I'll be watching you._

**Max's POV**

I lay down next to nudge, then turned slightly, watching Mik out of the corner of my eye, _I'll be watching you._

**This was actually a really fun chapter to write. The whole getting to know each other. All of the characters finding out how they'll mix. I just think it's fun to do that. It was especially fun for me to realize how similar Max and Mik are (I swear I didn't even realize that until I'd almost finished this chapter!) XD**

**Anyway, I'm still out of ideas, and if you want any quality in my writing, you might want to help me out here. So… Reviews?**


	13. Chapter 12: Understanding

**I am sooooooooooooooooooooo sorry that I haven't been on in forever. T^T I've been incredibly busy and haven't had any time to write. I swear I'll make it up to you guys though!**

**Yet another chapter written in a couple of hours. Most of my stories will probably be like this for a while, because I don't have a lot of time for writing, let along rewriting or proofreading. So I'm sorry if the quality is worse than usual. Don't be afraid to let me know if I messed up. I can take criticism.**

**I don't own Max or the flock. They would kill me if I said I did.**

**Chapter 12**

It was weird being in a group again. I mean, I had never been much of a people person, but here I was with half a dozen other bird-kids a bat-kid and a black dog, flying over some fields and quickly leaving the school behind us.

As we flew I watched their backs, categorizing them in my mind.

The girl with brownish-blonde hair, the one that called herself Max, was definitely the leader. She gave the orders, made the decisions, and told the others what to do. She seemed a bit bossy and certainly controlling, but other than that she almost reminded me of myself. I resolved to watch out for her in the future.

The boy with black hair and olive skin looked to be the next oldest. He was quiet, a thinker, but he had the look of a leader too. Truth be told he was a bit intimidating but whenever he looked back and me and Dharc his eyes were thoughtful and calm, not like the suspicious glares that Max occasionally threw at me. But I still wanted to keep an eye on him because from what I'd seen he was probably the best fighter in their group. I think he was the one that she called Fang.

The next oldest was a pale boy with strawberry blonde hair. I couldn't really get a reading on his personality, but I thought he might be blind. So this group was flying around toting a bunch of little kids and a blind boy? I wasn't sure whether to be worried, annoyed or impressed.

Lets see… the next girl was noticeably younger, but not quite a child. She had skin the color of caramel, black hair, and tawny wings. She was the chatterbox. When we had first lifted off she had tried to bring me into a conversation for nearly fifteen minutes before Max had shut her up. She seemed interested in a lot of things that I had no idea existed. Stuff you put on your face to look pretty and clothes that held no purpose. Television shows and magazines and people called "supermodels". I resolved to look these things up at my earliest convenience and wrote her off as a non-threat.

The smallest boy was a bundle of energy to say the least. He zipped around, circling the group as they flew and diving up and down. He seemed like a fun-loving kid which was odd, given the fact that most of his life was supposedly spent undergoing horrible experiments.

The smallest girl, maybe five or six years old was the one that scared me the most. She floated along effortlessly, every once in a while saying something in response to a statement that, as far as I knew, no one had said out loud. Whenever she looked back at me I had to suppress a shudder and blank my thoughts to keep from completely losing it and either bolting or killing her. I'm not really sure what it was about her that unnerved me so much. At first I thought it was her obvious mind-reading, then her adult way of speaking, or her childlike eyes, too intelligent for her age, but whatever it was she scared me and scared me good. I was definitely staying away from her in the future.

On the whole, the group didn't seem too bad, but I had no idea if this was an elaborate trap or not. I was keeping an eye on all of them and I wouldn't turn my back on any of them.

Just as I reached this conclusion, the little blonde girl looked back at me again and a voice broke into my thoughts, _You can trust us, you know. We're just like you._ She smiled like a little angel and I slammed my eyes shut, concentrating as hard as I could on keeping it blank. A cold sweat washed over me, covering me with an unreasoning fear and it was a long time before I breathed normally again. The little girl didn't bother me again.

Hours later the sun was beginning to dip below the horizon and Max called back to the rest of us, "Let's head down and find somewhere to spend the night." It looked as though that would be pretty easy because the only thing below us for miles was empty fields, but I angled down, following her anyway. We dropped into a grassy meadow, a pasture or something, and the blind boy and the black girl (I learned their names were Iggy and Nudge) left to find something to eat. Max, Dharc and I sat down, staring at each other for a long time and none of the others bothered us.

Finally Max sighed and broke contact. "Okay. Mik, right?" she said, sounding tired, "You said you're like us, which means you're from the School which means they're looking for you to either get you back or kill you. Or." She frowned chewing on the inside of her lip and I could almost see her brain working on the problems sitting in front of her, "you're a trap or hoax and you're deliberately leading the erasers to us. But either way they're going to find us soon and I'll know if you were lying to me or not. Got it?"

I nodded. Honestly I thought she could've said the same thing in half the words but I wasn't about to complain. As long as she wasn't attacking me.

"So what's your story? How are you going to explain the fact that you suddenly appeared in downtown LA fighting a bunch of erasers, disappeared, and then reappeared the next day and attacked me?" She then glared at Dharc, "And where do you come in to all of this?"

So I told her everything, starting from my escape a couple days ago. Well, not _everything_. I spoke in short sentences, keeping a lot of details to myself. _I don't trust you yet,_ I thought at her, _So I'm not going to give you anything to use against me._ When I was done Dharc related her own story in much the same way as I'd told mine, holding back much of the detail she'd told me.

When we were done Max shook her head, "I can't believe it. That both of you managed to escape within a couple years of each other, fighting off erasers, and then _find _each other again after you've both escaped?"

"Well what about you?" I retorted, "A half dozen kids, one blind, two of them barely old enough to fight two erasers at once, you're telling me you escaped on your own?"

Max smiled bitterly, "We had help. A whitecoat smuggled us out a long time ago."

I snorted, "That's believable. Why would any of them do something like that? Whitecoats are despicable and think that we're sub-human. They would never set us free, unless it was for a field test."

I saw Max about to protest, probably that this whitecoat was different or kind or something, but my words hit home. Her shoulders slumped, "I don't know why he did. I thought he was different from the others. Maybe I was wrong." Something about those words made me want to believe her, comfort her even, but I didn't think that would go very well so I settled for sitting back and looking up at the stars.

The rest of the evening passed in silence and it was a long time before I managed to sleep.

**So that's it for now. Incredibly filler, but I needed to get Max and Mik to a point where they understood each other or at least wouldn't try to kill each other at the slightest provocation. I'll be working on some action in the next chapter and praying that I get it up before June.**

**If anyone out there still remembers me and reads this, Please review.**

**Merry Christmas!**


	14. Chapter 13: Attack

**Hullo again. I know I've been practically nonexistent for the last several …weeks? Months? I'm not even sure anymore. Point is, I've been gone forever and It's high time I put something up. And this time I've decided to do something more than my seemingly pointless, endless fluff chapters. At last I'm getting on with the story!**

**You're amazed beyond words right now. I know you are.**

**Chapter 13**

The next few days lapsed into a sort of uneasy calm between me and Max. We both kept our respective distances from the other's "flock", though I'm not sure if Dharc and I could really be called that. None of us were really sure where we were going, but apparently Max had some kind of voice in her head that told her what to do sometimes. I was skeptical when she told me, thinking it might be some kind of whitecoat plot to lead us all to our doom, but she said it hadn't lead them wrong yet.

Yeah, call me paranoid.

We were flying across the country without any real goal, just cruising over endless fields and cities, with no one around but the eight of us (nine if you count the dog). It was the closest to peace I had ever gotten. The feeling left me almost giddy and I found myself smiling more and more, talking with other members of Max's flock and establishing friendships, something I'd promised myself that I would never do again after Dharc was declared "dead". They were slowly teaching me about the world that I was now a part of and I was giving them all the insight I could to the whitecoat's plans, which wasn't much. But the point was, I was completely free to do whatever I liked, for the first time in my life. It was the greatest feeling in the world and I couldn't seem to get over it.

But of course, this is my life we're talking about, so peace can't last for long, right?

It was the third night of travel and we'd gone nearly three hundred miles that day. We landed around just before sunset in some woods four or five miles from a main highway. We were all exhausted and Angel and Gazzy fell asleep the second they folded their wings. Nudge collapsed a couple minutes later, snoring like a freight train. I was ready to drop too, but Max insisted that we get something to eat before we crashed for the night. All of us except Dharc had really weird metabolisms and if we didn't eat every couple of hours we burned out completely.

Max rummaged around in her backpack before pulling out some dried fruit and a chocolate bar. I was taking a bag of dried apricots from Max when a wave of nausea swept over me. The bag slipped from my fingers and I clenched my stomach, a weird sound coming from somewhere in the back of my throat. Dharc was by me in a second, "You okay?"

I sucked in a breath, and tried to slow my breathing. "I'll be fine." I wasn't fine though, something was wrong here. I needed to get out, get away. We weren't safe. The nausea and the fear were overwhelming me. "Wake the kids up, we have to move."

The four of them were on alert now, looking around, listening. Iggy held up his hand to shush us and nodded. "There's something out there," he whispered, more quietly than a breath. We moved then, trying to be as silent and inconspicuous as possible. Dharc picked up the backpack and Fang helped her stuff our food back into it. Max moved silently to wake Gazzy, Angel and Nudge, lifting the still-sleeping Total into her arms. Iggy was still on alert, head swiveling back and forth in reaction to the slightest sound. _Get ready, _she mouthed to us. I struggled to my feet, fighting the sick feeling down. _On three. One...Two..._

All at once, dozens of Erasers burst from the trees around us. We dove into the air, beating our wings hard. I saw one eraser grab Fang's ankle, but Fang beat his wings down, whacking the Eraser over the head, and lifted away. I jumped and wobbled, nearly throwing up, but managed to get in the air before any of them could get close enough to grab me. I joined Max at a hundred feet and did a quick head count. We were all there.

Max didn't waste time on words. She pointed South and we went at top speed, all tiredness gone in a burst of adrenaline. After a couple of miles, e dropped down to fifty feet to avoid any copter surveillance they might have. A few seconds later, she looked back at me. I was lagging; the sick feeling hadn't stopped. "How did you know they were there? If you hadn't warned us they would've gotten us all."

I shook my head, not trusting myself to speak. The thing was though, I _hadn't_ known the Erasers were there. I'd just felt like there was something wrong. It was just a hunch, I couldn't explain it myself.

The sick feeling was starting to fade and I drew my first full breath in several minutes. I looked back up at Max and stated to ask her if she thought we were far enough away when the sick feeling seized me again. All of my muscles froze up and clenched. My wings stopped beating and I stared to fall. Someone yelled my name as I struggled to move, then something in the back of my mind sort of pinched and everything flashed red then black.

**So I finally decide to get on with the story and it ends up being a chapter less than nine hundred words long, possibly very confusing AND a cliffhanger. Ah, you must hate me for that. But now that I've got some inspiration the next chapter should be coming up fairly soon.**

**R&R?**


	15. Chapter 14: Rescue

**Nobody reviewed on the last chapter. I wasn't going to update until someone reviewed but… I think nobody's reading this story anymore. –sniff-**

**So I really don't know why I'm posting this. Maybe in the vain hope that there is still someone out there who might read this and tell me what they think?**

**Chapter 14**

My first thoughts when I regained consciousness where scattered and blurry. Pain. Lots of pain. _Breathe._ And darkness. _Keep breathing._ Pain and darkness. That was all I was aware of for a long time.

After a long while I began to become more aware of my surroundings. I was moving, probably in the back of a van or truck of some kind. And there was something covering my eyes and something else keeping my wings tightly pinned. Other than that, there wasn't much I could gather beyond the pounding in my head. I needed to get more information. I needed to get out of here. But there was nothing I could do about that right now without giving away that I was fully conscious to whoever had managed to capture me.

I closed my eyes and looked back at my memories.

I was flying with Max, we had just gotten away from a huge group of erasers. I was about to ask her if she thought we were far enough away. Then… nothing. That had never happened before. Usually I got flat black when I was asleep or passed out, but for the first time ever, I was drawing a complete blank. No color, no sound, no feeling. It was seriously freaking me out. I couldn't get any information that way, which meant there was only one way.

I shifted painfully and groaned.

Immediately there were voices around me. And I recognized the way that they talked. Erasers.

_Crap._

"I thought you said she'd be out for the whole ride back!"

"She should have been."

"Where did you put the thing? We can put her back under."

"I didn't have it, they used the remote. Remember they said they'd be testing that?"

"Didn't they give you one too?"

"No. But look at her; she's in no state to take us on. She's probably not even completely awake."

Now I was more confused than ever, but the last eraser to speak was telling the truth. I felt sick and weak, dangerously close to drifting back out of consciousness. But the rest of the conversation had completely lost me. Remote? Testing? It sounded like something mechanical, but if it had affected me, did they have the rest of the flock? No, it sounded like it was just me here. But in that case, why had whatever machine it was only affected me?

I ran over the list of things I knew:

1) The erasers had taken me down without warning and without a single punch.

2) It sounded like they had some kind of new tech that may only affect me.

3) But maybe not.

4) I had no clue where anyone else was, but I was probably headed back to the School.

5) I had a headache the size of Manhattan and hadn't eaten for quite a while that I could remember.

6) I barely had the strength to keep myself awake, let alone fight off a bunch of erasers.

7) I was pretty much screwed.

That sounded like that was just about it. But there was no way I was going to let myself be taken anywhere without a fight. I tensed my muscles and fought to push myself upright, but only managed to flop over onto my side, pinning my wing in the process. It hurt, but it actually served to clear my head a little. I was starting to think straight now, but I still had barely any strength. _Think, _I commanded myself, _Think._

I stayed still for another few minutes, gathering my strength as the erasers mumbled a little, then went back to their normal silence. Then I wrenched my hands up and pulled the hood off of my head.

There were four erasers with me in the back of what looked to be a van, the windows painted over. They were all staring at me incredulously as I struggled to sit up.

"Dude, that looks kind of awake to me." One of them grumbled to his bubby.

I glared at him. "Yeah, and really, really pissed off," I snarled, though it probably wasn't as intimidating as it could have been since I was half-sitting half-lying down and felt like I was about to throw up or pass out.

They looked at each other, and one of them grabbed the collar of my shirt with one hand. "I guess we'll have to keep you unconscious the old fashioned way then." He grinned and pulled back his fist.

And that's when all hell broke loose.

There was a crashing sound and the van lurched to one side, up on two wheels. The driver swore and spun the steering wheel, but there was another lurch and the side of the van actually caved in as something hit it hard.

The van tipped over and rolled, throwing the erasers and me around the back like rag dolls. Normally, I would have tried to press the advantage, but I was having a hard enough time as it was, there wasn't much I could do other than stay limp and hope we didn't hit water. My head cracked against something hard but I managed to keep myself from blacking out.

When the van finally stopped rolling, I somehow landed completely intact. There was a scratching noise at the back doors, and then the back door was ripped open, nearly off its hinges. I blinked in the sudden light, but it took a while for my eyes to adjust. I struggled to right myself and get into a battle stance. Then I saw who it was.

Dharc was standing there, eyes swamped completely with red, the handle of the door torn off in her hand. Max stood behind her with the rest of the flock, looking almost as murderous, wings spread to block any hope of escape. Even Angel looked ready to kill something. I dropped my head back and allowed myself a moment to breathe. They had found me. It was going to be okay.

The flock made short work of the four erasers that had been in the back with me. Even without being confused and off-balance, they would have been torn apart, but as it was it was over in seconds.

"Mik?" Dharc's voice reached me through the fog in my head, "Mik, are you okay?"

I groaned and tried to pull myself up. There was a hand behind my head, helping me. "I should be fine," I tried to say, but the words sounded muffled, "Took you long enough."

"God, sorry about that. I was starting to think we'd completely lost you."

"You didn't. I'm fine." With a supreme effort, I pulled myself all the way to my feet, leaning against the wall, "And besides, taking a few hours isn't that bad. You could've waited a couple years like last time."

Dharc suddenly looked uncomfortable, "Wait, 'a few hours'? You don't remember anything?"

"I was knocked out, how am I supposed to remember?"

"The whole time? You can't have been out the whole time."

"What are you talking about?"

Dharc sputtered something, but I couldn't really tell what, "But you…"

"Just tell me what's going on," I was starting to get annoyed, but nobody was saying much now, just staring at me.

Dharc seemed unable to speak at all at this point, but Max stepped in, looking just as uncomfortable. She took a breath, "Mik, you've been missing for over a week now."

I really wasn't sure what to say to that.

**So if anyone out there is reading this please please PLEASE tell me what you think. Constructive criticism is always welcome. Even someone saying "hey I read the story" would be appreciated, cause I may stop writing otherwise. I'm kinda desperate now, does it show?**


	16. Chapter 15: Back again

**AHHHHHH people still read my story! My faith in humanity has been restored! Okay, I'm not that crazy, but now at least I know I can keep writing and at least one person will enjoy it. Thanks to all of you who took the time to review (All four of you :P)**

I'd been kidnapped, gotten wings grafted onto me, heard my best friend die, escaped from hell, seen my best friend _back_ from the dead and learned that I wasn't alone in the world. You'd think nothing would surprise me anymore. But learning that I had been missing for over a week with no recollection of what had happened was a bit of a shocker.

I mean, what was I doing in this van if they weren't bringing me back to the School? Had I really been unconscious the whole time? And if I hadn't what had I been doing? Or, a better question would have been: what had _they _been doing to me?

I could have asked these questions. I could have shrugged it off like it didn't matter. I could have acted strong and smart and on top of everything. But as I sat there with the flock waiting for my reaction to the news, I felt like a kid again. Stupid and weak and dumb.

I struggled up to my feet, some of the feeling coming back into my legs. "Okay," I started, stopped and tried again, "Okay. I've been missing for a week?" Dharc nodded apprehensively and I took a breath, "Do you know what happened? Besides that I've been missing?"

Max stepped up to this challenge, "We were flying after you warned us about the erasers in that clearing and you started to say something and then you sort of cut off. You just stopped…everything. You stopped moving, you stopped flying. I think you even stopped breathing."

"It's like you weren't even there anymore," Angel told me, "Like you were there but your mind kind of paused. Or like it wasn't even there."

"So anyway, you started falling and we went after you but then something weird happened and when you hit the trees we lost track of you for a minute. By the time we found you again, they'd already loaded you into a van and were a couple miles away. We went after it but we ended up losing it after maybe twenty miles.

"It was luck that we found you again really. We were searching but, well, we'd been searching for eight days already and it looked like you were gone for good. Then all of a sudden there's a white van on the road heading _towards_ the school. We thought it might have been a coincidence, but it was the best lead we'd gotten since you disappeared. We followed the van for a couple miles and then Angel could feel you all of a sudden and we went in."

I tried to process the information slowly, "So if I wasn't at the school that whole time, then where was I?"

"We were hoping you could tell us." It was Iggy that time. I looked at him and suddenly realized that it looked like he hadn't slept in days. All of them were looking worn down. Haggard I suppose would be the word. Dust and dirt covered their clothes and there were scratches visible on their arms and faces. They really had been looking for me and they actually had cared enough to lose sleep over it.

I shook myself out of my stupor, and shrugged, "I'm sorry. I can't help you with that. I don't know where I was or what they were doing. I was either really heavily drugged or-" I shrugged again as something twinged at the back of my mind. I tried to grasp at the thought but it darted away from me. "-Or something else."

"We know you weren't at the school. Cause we were monitoring all the roads in and out of there and there was no was they could have gotten you past us, but what I mean is that even if they'd gotten past us then why would they be brining you back again just after brining you out? I mean we could ask the erasers when they wake up but they've never been cooperative before and we don't know if they called for backup or whatever…" Nudge was chattering on and on and though it helped me order some of my thoughts it eventually faded to background noise. There was still something wrong with this whole situation. Something I was missing. Something big, right in front of my nose.

Then I grasped it.

"I'm still wearing the same clothes."

"But if we had- What?"

"My clothes. They're the same clothes I was wearing before they got me. If I was is the school or anywhere like it they should have put me in a hospital gown or whatever."

Nudge's chatter stopped and they looked at me, really looked at me. Dharc frowned then pulled up the sleeve of my jacket and checked my arms, "No marks of an IV or a needle either, or at least none recent enough to say they were drugging you that way."

"Something's really wrong here." That was Fang. It was four more words than I usually heard him speak, but I knew he was right.

Max was assessing the situation as always, "We need to get out of here. We don't know if there are more whitecoats or erasers around here, or if they," she waved to the erasers lying unconscious around the van, "managed to call for backup before we got to them. We have to find somewhere safe to lie low for a while. Then we can talk."

Dharc glanced around, then back to me, "Can you fly?"

My wings felt weak and jittery but I knew if I couldn't get in the air I'd be holding them back and endangering them all. After they'd risked themselves and done so much to get me out, I knew I owed it to them. "I can manage."

It took me a couple tries to get in the air, but once I was up I started feeling better. Dharc and Fang flew below me in case I fell again and Angel scanned around us for the thoughts of any whitecoats. Max herself took point, searching the ground below us for anything out of the ordinary. The Gazzy and Nudge stayed close as well, mostly just staying out of the way and watching the sky. Iggy didn't need to do much of the watching bit, but he hung close by anyway. All in all I had my own private gang of body guards. It would have felt really cool if I hadn't been so tired and sore.

Actually I was beginning to feel better. The soreness in my limbs slowly disappeared since I was up and flying again. The sick feeling faded the further we flew and by the time the sun was setting I felt almost human again.

Well, 98 percent human, 2 percent bird. But you know what I mean.

None of us really wanted to keep going too long after dark, and we were about to settle for a copse of trees directly below us when Gazzy spotted what looked like a cabin ahead of us. We glided down and came to a stop behind the building. There was nobody inside but it was stocked up on canned foods and the like so we had a good dinner before everyone crashed.

Max told me that we should get some sleep and we could talk more tomorrow. I knew it was because she didn't want to push me and because we were all tired. I knew she was trying to give me time to work through it all in my head. But I honestly didn't mind. Compassion. It was something I wasn't used to.

There was something else in the cabin that I wasn't used to. Beds. Like, real beds with sheets and blankets on them. The whole idea almost seemed unnatural to me given that I had spent so long in cages. Everyone else fell asleep pretty quickly but I stayed awake for a long time tossing and turning. The softness of the mattress seemed unnatural after all those years in a metal cage. Finally I yanked all the blankets into a pile on the wooden floor, curled up, and fell asleep.

**As promised, another chapter filled with action (not really), humor (not really), and mystery (well… I guess a little). I promise more excitement again soon. Like, in the next chapter or two. In the meantime… Reviews?**

**(Oh and Ella the falcon: if you have an account, PM me. I'd love to hear more about your character.)**


	17. Chapter 16: Nightmares

**I've gotten absolutely no sleep this week but I managed to finish another chapter. I hope you all enjoy it!**

There were lights everywhere, flashing inside of my head. A high-pitched siren wailed over the sound of waves crashing. Blurred shapes flickered everywhere at the edges of my vision. It tried to turn my head but I was stuck in place. The lights blurred into a constant stream of light, blinding me. _Help me. _My head hurt, throbbing in time with the beat of my heart. I couldn't breathe. There was no air. _Somebody help me._ There was a voice too, quieter than the siren or the waves. I couldn't make out the words, couldn't even make out the voice. _Help me please. It hurts._ The voice was asking me for something. Something I couldn't give. I couldn't do what it was asking, but I didn't know why. The siren screamed. The lights burned. The voice pressed on me. I couldn't breathe. _Help me._

I woke up screaming.

I thrashed against the snare entangling me, unable to calm myself. There was the sound of feet rushing towards me and someone saying something. I couldn't hear. I couldn't breathe. A hand touched me and I flinched away so violently I hit a wall.

"I won't!" I screamed. There were tears running down my face. I couldn't understand what I was saying. I couldn't understand anything, "Get away from me!"

The hands came forward again and I lashed out. I hit nothing and shrank as far back into the corner as I could as they grabbed my shoulders. "I won't," I whispered, pulling away, shaking, "I won't. I won't."

"It's okay Mik. It's over. It's okay."

The voice belonged to Dharc. She was my friend. She wasn't the voice. I wasn't in the place with the lights. I was safe. I took a breath repeated it to myself. I was safe. I was in a cabin. The thing tangled around me was the sheets. The hands belonged to the rest of the flock. I was safe.

I was drenched in a cold sweat, shaking like mad. The tears were still pouring down my face and I was unable to stem the flow. My eyes were wide open but it felt like I couldn't see anything in front of me. _Calm down. Deep breaths. I'm safe._ I gulped air, but I couldn't seem to find the strength to unknot myself or pull myself away from the corner of the room.

Dharc was there. Max was just behind her. Still Dharc kept speaking to me, tying to calm me. "It's okay. It was just a dream."

"It wasn't" I said. My voice sounded hoarse and ragged. Unstable. "Won't stop. Won't stop."

"Then what was it?" Max, trying to control the situation.

"They-they talk to me. They want me to- I can't-"

"It's okay." Iggy was there too. And Fang was behind him with the rest of the flock. The younger ones looked terrified.

A choked sob wormed its way out of my throat even though I fought to keep it back. A shudder passed through me. "I don't know. I don't know what that was."

I breathed in and out and scrubbed the back of my hand across my face, wiping away the tears. My heartbeat slowed to a manageable rate and slowly I calmed. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay."

"No, I'm sorry. I don't know what happened. It was- it was just a nightmare."

Max started pacing, small steps between the bed and the door. "Have you had these dreams before?"

"No. Not that I can remember."

Max turned on Dharc, "Has she ever acted like this before?"

"No, at least for as long as I've known her." Dharc glanced at me as I slowly uncurled myself from the corner.

Max's gaze darkened considerably, "Then we can assume that whatever caused this happened sometime in the last week. Something that happened to you while you were gone made this happen. It might be a memory or whatever, but it's definitely not just a dream."

I stood up shakily, "But it was just a dream. I'm- I'm fine now. It's okay."

"The hell it is. They think they can just come in and screw with someone in my flock? Kidnap them and throw them out with no memory of what happened? I don't know what they think they're doing and I don't know it might've even been to get to me."

I sputtered, "To get to you? To get to _you_? They screw with my head and I'm he one who gets all the trouble for this, you think that it's because they want something with _you_?"

"Well they keep telling me that everything's about me, so maybe this is about me too!"

"So everything's about you then, Max? The whole world, and everything's about you?" The shakiness disappeared and all of a sudden I was angry. I wanted to hit something. No, I wanted to hit _her_. I wanted to grab her and knock some sense into her. Since they'd rescued me I'd felt absolutely useless. They'd had to protect me. They'd had to fight for me. I was dead weight and now she said that it was because of _her_? That I'd gone through all of this…

All of this…

All of this what?

I dropped heavily onto the edge of the bed I hadn't used, "Damn."

"Mik?"

"I got something. just for a split second, I'm sure I remembered…something. But it's gone and I can't…"I rubbed my eyes, holding back against the torrent of emotions.

"Mik…It's okay. You don't have to push yourself." I hated the worried tone in their voices. I hate the way that they looked at me, like an invalid. Like I couldn't handle myself. I hated that I knew they were all wondering not _if _but _when _I wound break apart next. They thought that I was damaged and broken. And I hated knowing they were right.

I stood up abruptly, "I'm going for a fly. I'll be back in a minute."

"Wait, someone should go with-"

I snapped out my wings and dove out the window before she could finish the sentence. I was not in the mood for more coddling and what with all their cautiousness, I hadn't gotten the chance to stretch my wings in, well, I wasn't sure how long. I strained my wings against the air pushing as hard as I could, and turned in a spiral through the sky, then dove at the ground. Air rushed through my feathers and my hair. I put all of my anger into the beats of my wings, working out the tension until there was nothing left. Then I stopped rocketing across the sky and slowed into a gentle glide.

I drifted down to a cluster of trees and settled into the branches. Peace. Quiet. Nobody was there to tell me what to do. Nobody was telling me to get some rest or that I had to eat or forcing me into tests. Nobody was looking over my shoulder. They could just stop and leave me alone. Leave me alone. I don't want-

No. No I was calm and in control. If I didn't come back on my own then they'd start looking for me and they'd think I couldn't handle myself. They'd be worried and then they'd never let me go out alone again. They'll just keep coming until-

No.

Slowed my breathing and I cleared my head of thoughts. I let my mind drift into blankness as I searched for a solution to the problem facing me. Somehow the school had gotten me, but hadn't brought me to them immediately, instead sending me somewhere else. Then they sent me on practically the main road to the school with no backup where I was rescued, but with no memory of anything that had happened while I was missing. My friends were worried and rightfully so I supposed. We had no idea what had happened or if it would happen again.

And that dream… Something told me that wasn't the first time I'd had that dream but I couldn't remember anything about it. Just nose and light and someone's voice. And fear.

I pressed my fists against my closed eyes until sparks danced under my closed lids, "What is _wrong_ with me?"

**A bit of a cliché ending but I hope to start actually unraveling what's going on soon. R&R?**


	18. Chapter 17: Search

**Sorry for the delay in getting the story up. I've been on break but somehow I haven't had ANY time to write. You know how it gets around Christmas. Or maybe you don't, I wouldn't know. But anyway, I told myself I would sit down and not get up again until the next chapter was done, so there you go! We're finally getting into the thick of things and I'm really hoping this chapter will surprise you and apologize if it confuses you.**

I would love to tell you that after the first day it got easier. All the nightmares went away. We found who had messed with my head and brought them down no problem. And of course after that, the flock stopped exchanging worried looks behind my back. Dharc and I became a part of the flock for real. We all trusted each other and acted like a big happy family. Oh, and of course, we each got a sparkly unicorn and ended poverty and war.

Seriously, whose life do you think you're reading about anyway?

It didn't get any easier. I had nightmares and flashbacks all the time and most nights I woke up screaming. Dreams of voices, noises, blurry shapes. Always, the same feeling of being unable to breathe, unable to move. Sometimes there was sharper pain, like a scalpel. Sometimes waking up was just as bad as the dreams, the moments of uncomprehending terror. Not knowing where I was or who the people around me where.

I operated on two to three hours of sleep a night, afraid to close my eyes, knowing that the nightmares would take me again. And even in my waking moments I had what might have been flashbacks. Or visions. I had to work with constant headaches that were sometimes so intense I blacked out. Twice I had what Max thought could have been a seizure.

But the worst thing, worse than the pain and the fear and the blackouts and the confusion, was the feel of absolute helplessness. I was back in a cage again, only this time I couldn't escape it. The entire world was one big cage and I was still part of an experiment.

At least now we had a direction. A mission. Before we had been wandering, mostly on the whim of the Max's "Voice". But now everyone agreed we had to find the people who did this to me and shut them down. Even if it couldn't help me at all, we could still stop them from doing this to anyone else.

First we searched the spot where I'd been taken. Or I guess I should say _they _searched. I was busy being unconscious. But when I woke up it was pretty to figure out what they'd found. Nothing. We spread out from there, searching for buildings, main roads, anything to give us a lead. Nothing. So we went back and we searched mile by mile for any clues. Anything at all. And we found, you guessed it: nothing. The flock was good but these guys were pros. We couldn't find a trace.

What little I could give them from my dreams and flashbacks was muddled and uncertain and none of it helped the search. A bright room looking into a dark one. Glass walls. Lights. Blood. Screaming. A padded cell ripped to shreds. Never did I remember seeing windows or anything that would tell me where we were. No landmarks. Not even the sky.

And so we kept looking.

"You know, you were missing a long time Mik. They might not even be here anymore."

It was night again and we were huddled around a small fire in the woods, cooking stolen hot dogs and talking. It was the fifth day after I'd been rescued and we were no closer to the truth than the first day.

"I know Nudge."

"I mean really. We don't know a thing about them except what you been able to tell us which - I'm really sorry but it's true – is, like, barely anything. So we've got nowhere to go to start. We're just going in bigger and bigger circles trying to find anything and we don't even know if they're out there."

"I know Nudge." My voice was flat. Exhausted.

"No I mean it! We don't eveMMF."

Fang had put his hand over Nudge's mouth, stopping her it the middle of her sentence. "She knows, Nudge" he said, "She doesn't need to hear it again."

I saw Nudge's eyes tear up a little at his sharp tone but she nodded and we fell back to silence. I wracked my brains for anything else that I hadn't thought of or remembered before. It had become standard for me to try this and I met with the same result I had before. Nada. Zero. Zilch. It was like someone had built a wall around those memories and no matter what I tried, I couldn't break it. And when I tried too hard, the torrent of memories would hit me again, but none of the memories I wanted to uncover.

So it had become a sort of game where I failed either way. I would scratch at the wall, trying to get through. Too much and I would be subjected to yet another waking nightmare. Too little and I would wear myself out and get nothing for my effort. I toyed with the knife I'd been using to cook my hot dog and immersed my self in the morbid competition again. Before I'd gotten very far into it Nudge stood up.

"I'm going to get more firewood. Anyone want to come?"

"I'll go." I said and everyone's gaze swiveled towards me.

The protests were instantaneous. You're not well. What if you have another attack. What if the erasers or someone comes back. You need to rest. You can't. You can't. You can't. I knew them all by now and I was tired of it.

"I'm be fine, honestly. My head doesn't even hurt right now," It was weird but as I said that my head cleared some and the pain went down. Not completely, but I felt better than I had in days. "We won't go far and we won't take long. You'll all be close enough to hear if anything goes wrong plus Nudge will be there. Don't worry about it so much."

Grudgingly, they agreed and we walked out into the woods. I could feel her eyes boring into my back as I picked up branches and sticks randomly, not much caring where I was walking.

"Um…Mik?" her voice was tentative.

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry about earlier but are you okay? You've been really quiet."

"Yeah I'm fine. Really." I knew she wouldn't believe me but I said it anyway. I felt her hand on my arm and I jerked away, "Cut it out! Stop worrying about me for five seconds. I'm fine, okay?"

"You keep saying that but you're not fine. We're trying our best to help you but we need you to help us help you. We can't do anything if you're cutting us all off. The flock might not act like it all the time but we're a family. And you're one of us now right? You're part of the family. Even Max knows it and she said it to us before. You're one of us now and it doesn't matter what happens. A mad scientist can't change that."

I'd never heard anyone say that to me before and the words seemed to squeeze around my heart. Maybe Nudge was right, maybe I was just shutting them all out too much. I could trust them. I could let them in to my life and we _could_ be a family. Or at least something close. Maybe, just maybe, this could all work out. My barriers came down just a little and I smiled at her. _I might be okay._

But as I was thinking that, my head throbbed once and Nudge stiffened. Her mouth fell open into a litte "o" of surprise. "Mik?" It was a sort of question.

My vision blurred from the pain but I couldn't move. Why couldn't I move? Something was wrong; something was so, so wrong. But I couldn't move. I couldn't tell her that I was hurting. But then something clicked in my head. Slowly, without my consent, my eyes traveled down my arms. My gaze fixed on my trembling hands, still griping the knife that was planted securely in her stomach.

**So. Were you surprised? I would tell you everything will be okay and they'll work it out, but I honestly can't say anything without giving away important plot stuff now. This is all sorts of fun for me to write but I don't know if anyone else is enjoying it. I got over 50 visitors but only one person reviewed. I can take criticism, I promise. Please, please, PLEASE review?**


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